Love Turned Lethal

Richard Farley: When Obsession Turns Deadly

Love at first sight is often a dream come true, but what happens when it spirals into deadly obsession? In 1988, former US Navy member Richard Farley found out, and the results were shockingly brutal.

Listen as we dive into Farley's creepy infatuation that led to a terrifying rampage.

From Military Roots to Dark Fixation: Richard Farley’s Early Life

In 1948, Richard Wade Farley, like many children in military families, was born into a family of constant change. He was the oldest of six children and often found himself trudging from home to home as he and siblings followed their parents from city to city and state to state. Eventually, after years of almost constant traveling, the Farleys settled in California where Richard finished his high school and then college education.

At school, Richard found it difficult to get along with others and didn’t have many close friends. He was often bullied and ostracized and that seemed to go for his home life as well. Despite being one of six siblings, the children later claimed that no one in the family was particularly close and one of his brothers had even gone ten years without speaking to Richard at all.

But despite that, Richard did like many children born into military families do and signed up for service himself. Richard joined the navy and served for a total of ten years before moving back to California, perhaps the first place that Richard could think of as his home. It was there, in California, that Richard began his new career as a software technician in Electromagnetic Systems Labs Inc, a company that develops reconnaissance software and technology.

But it was far from the place where Richard began to flourish.

The Obsession Begins: Richard Farley and Laura Black

It was during his ten years at ESL or Electromagnetic Systems Laboratory that Richard Farley met Laura Black, a young and talented, twenty-two-year-old electrical engineer. In his own words the then thirty-five-year-old Richard “fell in love” with Laura at first sight and he was determined to do everything he could to win her over.

He began leaving Laura handwritten letters and homemade gifts on her desk. He kept telling Laura how he felt about her and asked her out on several occasions, but every time he did, Laura politely refused. 

The feelings that Richard was feeling weren’t mutual and Laura later said that when dealing with Richard and his constant advances she “tried really to ignore him but to be cordial.” 

But it looked like Richard wasn’t getting the message. 

A Nightmare Unfolds: Years of Stalking and Harassment

“The more she tries to push me away, the more I try to not have her push me away,” Richard later said and when his letters and home baked goods didn’t seem to be doing the trick, Richard dialed things up a notch. He started calling her work phone to try and talk to her every few hours, he talked to the janitors and tried to get a copy of her desk keys, and then he found ways to invade Laura’s personal life too.

Richard managed to talk the HR department into handing over Laura’s personal phone number and her address. After that, it was like the floodgates truly opened. Richard began sending Laura letters to her home address multiple times a week. He constantly called her, he loitered outside her house, he showed up at her aerobics class. He photoshopped pictures of the two of them together and sent them to her as well.

In the four years that they knew each other, Richard sent Laura over two hundred letters to her home addresses.

Yes, addresses, because Laura ended up moving several times in an attempt to get away from Richard and every time he managed to track her down again.

Finally, in 1985 after enduring years of this, Laura asked the HR department at ESL for help dealing with Richard. Realizing that Richard had gone way overboard, HR ordered him to attend psychological counseling. 

Counseling that didn’t seem to work in the slightest.

Instead of calming down and trying to go unnoticed now that he was on management’s radar, Richard doubled-down on his harassment of Laura and even spread his campaign further. When colleagues began trying to defend and protect Laura from Richard, Richard started threatening them as well.

A male colleague and friend confronted Richard and warned him that he would end up in jail if he didn’t stop what he was doing to Laura. Richard responded by typing a letter to Laura and mailing it to her home address. “It’s not in your best interest for him to interfere,” Richard told Laura in his letter. “He doesn’t have any idea what he’s getting into. You’d better tell him, I’d better never see any police around me.”

Needless to say, management at ESL figured out that there was no changing Richard’s behavior. His constant harassment of Laura had also begun to affect his own work and the hours that he was spending at the office and, so, after employing him for over nine years, ESL fired Richard.

Richard returned the favor by finding work in rival companies like Covalent Systems Corporation, but the truth was that his fixation with Laura was far from over.

“You cost me a job, forty thousand dollars in equity taxes I can’t pay, and a foreclosure. Yet I still like you,” he later wrote to Laura. “Why do you want to find out how far I’ll go? … I absolutely will not be pushed around, and I’m beginning to get tired of being nice.”

The Breaking Point: Laura Black Files for a Restraining Order

Things escalated even further in 1988 when Laura, now at her wit’s end after years of being stalked, filed for a temporary restraining order against Richard. Her case went to court on February 17th, just over two weeks later, to see if her restraining order would be made permanent.

Richard was fuming at this. In his mind, he and Laura had been in a real relationship all of these years and now she was trying to turn the tables on him. He sent a package to her lawyer with documents and evidence that he believed proved that he and Laura were in fact dating. It included hotel receipts, a written tale of drugs the two of them had allegedly shared, and pictures of Richard and Laura together. 

Laura’s lawyer later said that they believed everything in the package had been fabricated.

With the court date looming, Richard realized that he was on the verge of losing Laura for good… not that he ever really had her. 

To combat that, he began buying and adding to his collection of guns and ammunition.

A Day of Tragedy: Richard Farley’s Deadly Rampage

The day before going to court, Richard drove his motorhome to a familiar spot. He parked outside ESL, California, and waited for Laura to come out after her day at work. In his mind, he was either going to convince Laura to drop the restraining order then and there or he was going to kill himself.

Around 3:00 that afternoon, Richard loaded eight different guns with ammunition, packed an extra 1000 rounds, a smoke bomb, a foot-long buck knife and strapped on his bullet-proof vest to confront the woman he’d been obsessing over for years.

But as soon as Richard stepped out of his motorhome, he began firing and shooting at anyone in front of him. He headed to the side entrance, shot out the glass so he could get in, and started stalking the corridors towards Laura’s office. He shot and killed seven of his former coworkers and wounded another three more before he finally arrived at his intended target.

Laura spotted Richard coming and slammed the door in his face in a desperate attempt to get away from him, but Richard managed to get the door open and position his gun so he could fire at Laura. He hit her in the shoulder, completely shattering the joint and collapsing her lung in the process.

Laura hit the ground, covered in blood and unconscious from her injuries and that’s, maybe, what saved her.

Thinking his mission was complete, Richard then sat tight and kept the arriving SWAT Team busy for a further five hours. During that time, Laura miraculously regained consciousness and managed to escape with other employees who were also hiding from Richard.

During talks with the police negotiator, Richard reportedly cried, showed remorse for the lives he’d taken and the damage he’d done that day and threatened to kill himself. Richard also confessed that during the years he’d been stalking Laura, he’d lost two homes, his car and computer and had fallen over 20,000 dollars behind in his taxes.

He was eventually convinced to come out and surrender to the police once his condition of a turkey sandwich and a diet coke were met.

The court date that he’d been dreading so much went ahead the following day where the judge, perhaps to no one’s surprise, made Laura’s restraining order permanent. With tears in her eyes, the judge commented: “Pieces of paper do not stop bullets.” A statement that hit especially hard at a time when no one was certain whether Laura would actually recover from her injuries or not.

The Aftermath: Laura Black’s Recovery and the Impact on ESL

At trial for the seven murders he’d committed that day, Richard and his lawyers attempted to argue that Richard wasn’t normally a violent person, but that he had been blinded by his obsession with Laura.

The prosecution fired back and claimed that Richard’s behavior that day and the weeks leading up to it, where he’d bought and stockpiled several new guns and rounds of ammunition, proved that the attack had been premeditated.

The courts agreed and found Richard guilty of seven counts of first degree murder. He was sentenced to death, but due to California’s lengthy appeal’s process, he is still behind bars awaiting his execution to this day.

Laura, fortunately, survived the attack and the injuries she sustained that day. She even continued to work at ESL for several more years after that, but almost unbelievably, she would hear from Richard one last time. He wrote one final letter to Laura from his prison cell. In it, he stated that Laura had finally won, but it is safe to say that none of this had been a game for Laura or for the rest of her coworkers who were deeply affected and harmed by Richard’s actions throughout the years of constant harassment and stalking.

In the wake of this stalking that led to a mass shooting along with the high profile murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer, which I also covered in an episode in April called Robert the Celebrity Stalker, California passed the first anti-stalking laws in the nation.

Conclusion: A Tragic Tale That Changed the Law

The story of Richard Farley and Laura Black is a devastating example of how obsession can turn deadly when unchecked. Laura’s resilience in surviving such a harrowing ordeal is nothing short of remarkable, but the scars—both physical and emotional—left behind by Farley’s rampage are a haunting reminder of the devastating impact of stalking and gun violence.

This case also highlights the inadequacy of legal protections at the time. Laura’s restraining order, while courageous, served as little more than a symbolic gesture against a man so consumed by his delusions that he was willing to commit mass murder. The tragedy of February 16, 1988, revealed glaring holes in the system, spurring the creation of California’s groundbreaking anti-stalking laws—the first of their kind in the nation. These laws have since inspired legislation across the United States, protecting countless victims of stalking and harassment.

But as much as this story is about systemic change, it’s also about the resilience of those who endured it. Laura not only survived but continued to work at the very company where her life was nearly taken—a testament to her strength and determination. Her courage serves as an enduring symbol for victims of stalking everywhere, reminding us that even in the face of unimaginable terror, survival is possible.

For true crime enthusiasts, the Richard Farley case is a chilling study in obsession, entitlement, and the catastrophic consequences of ignoring warning signs. It’s a sobering reminder of the importance of taking stalking seriously—not just as an inconvenience but as a potential precursor to violence.

While Richard Farley remains on death row, his case continues to serve as a stark reminder of the lives lost and the work still to be done in addressing stalking, mental health, and gun control. Laura Black’s story, though rooted in tragedy, has left a lasting legacy—one of strength, survival, and the determination to fight back against a broken system.